MNG now shipping to Australia

Have a look.  Prices are a bit on the exxy side ($500 for most of their leather jackets) - I hope the quality is decent but I find Mango quality a bit hit and miss, which makes things difficult when you are buying online and cannot inspect the item beforehand.  Having said that, they have a 30-day return policy and for $5 they will come and pick up the item from you.  Pretty good!

There is a lot of paisley on the site and I know many people object to paisley.  I don't mind it myself, but everything in moderation, people!

This also applies to leopard:

Delivery is free for orders > $100 and they have a LOT of stock.  Might spend some time tonight going through it to see if there's anything worth buying.

The Trials and Tribulations of Online Shopping

Argh another horror story.  I mentioned the Louboutins I bought from an online retailer based in Texas.  Well the saga only just ended a few days ago.  I received the shoes and there was a manufacturing fault - different sizes.  I contacted them and was involved in a 5-way email thread with the retailer, their supplier, and a few other randoms.  Eventually I posted the shoes back to them on 8th Feb (cost me $72 for the most basic postage and I wasn't even able to track it - thanks Australia Post).  It took 13 working days to arrive when Aus Post quoted me 5-7 working days.  I started stressing after the 7th business day and was contacting the retailer to see if they had received the shoes yet.  No response (surprise surprise).

Finally 2 days ago I got an email saying they had received the shoes and would be issuing me a refund.  Great.  Finally.

Yesterday I decided I was going to take the plunge and buy myself a nice Burberry trench coat as I've wanted one for the longest time (it's also my birthday on Saturday and I have loads left in my Frugal Feb kitty since I sold my Chanel).  Found a trench on ebay in my size (which is already difficult) - BNWT from Bloomingdales.  Excellent.  Buy It Now.  Wasn't expecting anything from the seller til overnight as they are based in the US.

So at 3am my time, I get a message from the seller asking me:

Which is your address- Sydney AU or Erlanger, KY? Thank you.

Obviously it's 3am so I don't respond immediately.  At 9am I get another message:

Thank you for shopping. Your item(insured package) has been sent to Erlanger, KY 41018 today. If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. Thank you again.

I woke up JUST after 9 and fired off a response immediately, hoping to catch them at the end of their work day.  No response for the last 3 hours so obviously they've gone home.

Firstly, I have no idea where they got this 'KY' address from.  I assume KY stands for Kentucky???  I only have an Australian address attached to my ebay account and I don't even know anyone who lives in Kentucky or anywhere in the US for that matter.  When I click on 'Order details' right now it shows me this (I've deleted some details but you get the gist):

Postage details
Kay Sydney New South Wales  Australia

My ebay page also says my location is Australia.

Secondly, why couldn't they wait a whole 6 hours for me to respond before shipping the item off?  Clearly they weren't certain of my address because they sent me a message asking me to confirm.  Why then send the coat without receiving a confirmation either way??  And if I don't respond in 6 hours maybe it's because I'm in Australia which is a different timezone.  And also, I PAID FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING.  HELLO!?!?!?!

Whoever lives at that address in Kentucky where they sent my coat will receive a free BNWT Burberry coat which cost me a mint.  I'm lodging a dispute with Paypal but I have kindly given the seller 24 hours to respond since I am aware they are in a different timezone and it's reasonable to allow people at least 24 hours to respond on ebay.

Thanks for letting me rant.  I'm in a horrible mood now because sorting all of this out will just be a huge headache.  I guess that comes with the territory when you online shop.